Emperor and Clown (52 page)

The
real Rap stood up, panting and straightening his clothes. “Want some more,
Stalwart?”

“Not
fair!” a growl from the floor said. “Used magic!”

“So
did you-well, you used occult muscle, anyway. Now you’ve started breaking up my
double there already. Get up and let me fix his leg.”

Something
knotted in Inos’s throat. This nonsense was probably a masculine way of dealing
with emotion, but why could Rap laugh with Little Chicken when he could not
laugh with her?

The
goblin guffawed and switched back to goblin dialect. “Was last chance for
exercise.” He bounced nimbly to his feet. “Start throwing my brothers around
like that, will scream Sorcery! and use me for wall hangings ... much as the
little green savages deserve it. And you have no idea how I’m going to miss
that good impish beer!”

“That
explains it, then,” Rap said absently, peering down at the prostrate
simulacrum. “I couldn’t understand why your destiny was completely mundane, but
it is. It seemed odd ... I suppose it makes sense. You’ll have to hide your
strength. Men might hesitate to follow a superhuman into battle.”

He
reached down a hand and helped the false Rap to its feet, where it stood in
dutiful silence. The real men faced each other, amid a pause that swiftly
became too long for comfort.

“Full
moon,” Rap said softly. “Good traveling in the northlands.”

“Summon
neighbors,” Little Chicken agreed, but he still seemed indecisive.

Again
Rap held out a hand, then changed the gesture to a hug. The two men embraced.

“Gods
bless, Flat Nose.”

“The
Good go with you,” Rap said softly. “Buckskins? Grease? Phew! All right-I’ll
put you at the door to Raven Totem.”

Goblin
and counterfeit faded and were gone. The casement’s third prophecy would be
fulfilled. Rap turned to the fire and leaned an arm along the mantel. For a
moment he seemed to slump, but whether it was from relief or despair, Inos
could not tell. Then he straightened and looked around for her. He bowed.

“Good
evening, your Majesty.” Keep it formal.

She
strolled forward and tossed her heavy coat on a chair. The air bore a lingering
stench of rancid bear grease. “Good evening, Court Sorcerer. And where have you
been these last few days?”

“Running
in the woods with a goblin.” Rap’s face was between her and the light on the
mantelpiece, and unreadable.

“That
helped him to the right choice?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“You
wouldn’t have let me listen if you hadn’t been sure.”

“But
it was only this afternoon that I was sure.”

“Most
sorcerers would just adjust his mind to suit themselves.”

“Perhaps.”
His voice was giving nothing away. “That might have upset his destiny, though.”

“Why
did you let me see all that?”

He
shrugged. “I won’t be staying long in Krasnegar, Inos. I didn’t want you ...
wondering.”

“Thank
you,” she said, thinking of Krasnegar without him.

“You
are most welcome. And what are your Majesty’s commands for this evening?”

She
perched on the arm of the chair the goblin had occupied. “If I turn up with a
court sorcerer and he blasts the jotnar to fritters, then the people will cheer
loudly, hail him as Inisso II, and put him on the throne.”

“Which
would be fine by you,” Rap agreed, an ironic smile crinkling his tattoos.

She
nodded-very fine!

He
wrinkled his nose. “But not by me.”

“So
we have to let the citizens free themselves, which means giving them weapons.”

“And
leadership. But then they will have bought their freedom, and will value it
accordingly.” He smiled faintly. He would smile as long as she kept the talk on
business. If she tried to tell him how empty life in Krasnegar was going to be
without him, then he would just vanish, or tell her she didn’t know her own
mind.

There
was nothing else to discuss, then.

He
was gazing at her quizzically, saying that it was time now. Her heart had
speeded up as if it expected her to flap her arms and fly all the way to
Krasnegar. But Rap would magic her there, and Rap would protect her-for a
couple of days, he had told the goblin. After that she would be on her own.

Sink
or swim. Win or lose. Live or die.

That
was her choice, and now, irrevocably, she must decide: to be a butterfly in
Kinvale or an ant in Krasnegar. Now! Speak!

She
thought of the goblin. He also had been caught up between two worlds like corn
in the mill, seduced by the easy life of the Impire and summoned home by duty.
That might be the real reason Rap had summoned her to watch Little Chicken’s
departure ...

Who
was she to start a war? By what right did she ask men to die so she could
reign?

There
was nothing left to say except either “Let’s go!” or else “I’m too frightened.”

She
had promised her father. Choose!

The
door clicked. An elderly lady came wandering along the room-short and plump,
immaculately dressed and begemmed, not a hair misplaced.

“There
you are,” Kade said sternly. “Master Rap, I have a complaint.”

He
bowed to her. “Your Highness, I am distressed to hear it.”

Kade
nodded vaguely to Inos and then addressed Rap again. “I have been rather
looking forward to having Kinvale the way it used to be, peaceful and settled.
For the last ten or fifteen years, Angilki has been constantly tearing it apart
and putting it back together again, but he won’t be doing that anymore.”

“Aunt!”
Inos said testily. “Just what are you getting it?”

“My
little sitting room. You know how fond I am of that room !”

“Yes,
Aunt, I know how fond you are of that room. So what?”

“There
is a door in the north wall, and I’m quite certain it was not there an hour
ago.”

Inos
turned to stare at the sorcerer. “Rap?”

His
teeth showed in his shadowed face. “I thought you might appreciate a little
company once in a while. Drop in for tea, maybe.”

Inos
gaped wonderingly at him for a long moment. “Oh, Rap! You mean that this new
door leads to Krasnegar?”

“Magic
portal. Useful for tea parties, famines, invasions.”

“Rap!
Oh, Rap!” Suddenly the prospect had changed. She would have Kade’s shoulder to
weep on.

She
would have an escape hatch. Now there was absolutely no reason not to go ahead.
Her doubts of a moment ago now seemed completely absurd. Why had she hesitated?

“Rap!”
she cried again, and she jumped up from the side of the chair and tried to throw
her arms around him.

She
ran into invisible molasses that brought her to a stop about a handsbreadth
away from him. She saw something close to panic in his eyes, and although their
faces were so near, he shouted at her.

“Idiot!
How often must I tell you? We can’t!”

“Rap!”

“Never!
Not even once. Not even to say good-bye.”

Bold
Lover:

Bold
Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though
winning near the goal

Keats,
Ode on a Grecian Urn

Alteration Find

Rap’s
taste in interior decorating was no match for Angilki’s. Kade’s private parlor
room was a small room, but it had been beautifully proportioned. The walls were
papered in pink roses, and the original woodwork was smooth and shiny white.
The new door was an odd-sized excrescence in one corner--mahogany red, thickly
embellished with carvings, spangled in eye-twisting runes of gold and copper.
It just did not go.

“I
could move it to the back of a closet somewhere,” Rap mumbled, scratching his
head and apparently recognizing for the first time the monstrosity he had
created.

“I
love it!” Kade insisted. “Now that I know what it does, I just love it! I did
try the handle,” she confessed guiltily, “but it seems to be bolted on the
other side.”

“It’s
only a dummy, actually,” Rap said. “Unless you also say the magic word, which
is `Holindarn.’ Are you ready, your Majesty?”

There
was no need to worry about baggage now. Inos swallowed a summerful of
butterflies and said, “One more minute, Court Sorcerer.” She began buttoning
her coat.

“I’ll
be with you,” he said quietly. “But you don’t want to show up with a
horsethief, so nobody’s going to notice me. I’ll be immemorable. Like this.”

Glancing
up from a particularly awkward button, Inos found herself looking at a
man-at-arms. Ear flaps dangled from a conical iron helmet, framing a face that
was typically imp-swarthy, poxy, and pudgy. Nothing much else was visible
except furs and a breastplate. He wore a short sword and padded leggings. And
boots. There was nothing especial to notice, except that he was a man-at-arms
dressed for winter. She remembered how once before she had seen Rap clad
somewhat like that and had failed to recognize him even with his own face on.

Then
he was himself again. Smiling warily, he stepped by her and hauled a
chintz-covered chair out of the way. “Go ahead, try it!”

Inos
turned to Kade for a farewell hug and kiss. “If I’m not fighting any wars
tomorrow afternoon, I’ll stop by for tea and tell you all about it,” she
promised, surprised how husky her voice sounded.

“That
will be lovely, dear. If you can.” For a moment Kade clung to Inos, and her
cornflower-blue eyes were unusually misty. “Inos . . .” She bit her lip. “I’m
not going to start being maudlin at my age, but ... I do want you to know that
your father would be very proud of you now!”

Gulp!
“Well, let’s wait and see how he would feel tomorrow, shall we?”

“Your
courage, dear, I mean. What you try is always lots more important than what you
achieve.”

“Goodness,
Aunt! I have never heard you moralize like this before.”

“That’s
because you always refused to listen, dear. But I am serious! Your father would
have approved of you. Your sense of duty, and your courage.”

If
this farewell was protracted any further, it was going to become a rather
obvious cowardice. “And he certainly would not disapprove of his sister, or
what she has done for me and for Krasnegar. Now I really must dash off, or I
shall be late for the massacre.”

With
that, Inos broke free and turned quickly to try the magic portal. “Holindarn!”
she proclaimed. The door shivered but did not budge.

“Here,
put some muscle into it!” Rap leaned an arm over her to push. He was closer
than he’d been since she tried to tell him her word of power, weeks ago. Then
she’d kissed his cheek. If she turned her head quickly, could she manage that
again? The door began to move, and wind shrieked. Torrents of icy air whirled
into Kade’s sitting room. Drapes leaped, papers flew. Coals tumbled and smoke
vomited from the fireplace. Kade squealed in alarm.

“Sorry!”
Rap shouted over the gale. “Have to work on this a bit!” He heaved harder, and
the opening was large enough for Inos to slip through, into frigid darkness.

The
door thumped closed behind her. She hadn’t heard Rap follow. She had forgotten
how intensely cold air could be, like ice water on her face.

“Akk!”
she said. “Light?”

Then
her eyes adjusted, and she saw moonlight beyond a window on her right and a
fainter one straight ahead.

“Recognize
it?” Rap’s voice inquired sardonically at her back.

“Inisso’s
chamber!”

She
turned, and the magic portal was a blackness filling the central arch. The side
arches framing it were simple casements of clear glass. She stared out in
wonder. Far below her, the snowcapped roofs and battlements of the castle, and
of Krasnegar itself beyond them, fell white and steep to the distant harbor, a
snowy plain glowing silver under the moon. Every chimney sported a plume of
smoke, rising slowly in the crystal-still air. Her heart thumped in her throat
and she felt tears that were only partly due to the cold.

Home!
Home at last!

“The
casement! What have you done with it?”

“I
got rid of it. They’re nasty things. You’re better off without it. But we
sorcerers have strange ideas of humor-on this side, the portal’s a real door,
always. Don’t forget the magic word, or that first step will get you. Ah! There’s
the trouble!”

Vague
in the darkness, he moved off to where the western casement had blown open. “Faulty
clasp!” he said, shutting it. “There!”

Inos
could see her breath now, like a white cloud. She could feel the cold aching in
her lungs. She had returned to Krasnegar as she had left it, by sorcery, and in
the exact same spot.

“Rap?
What did you mean when you said the magic casement didn’t prophesy?”

“Well,
it did in a way. But its prophecies tended to be rather nastily
self-fulfilling.”

“Doctor
Sagorn said . . .”

“Sagorn
doesn’t know half as much as he thinks he does,” Rap said firmly. “And he had
magic casements wrong! A casement does not advise what’s best for the person
opening it. It doesn’t care a poop for his welfare; not the way a preflecting
pool advises a person. Casements are fixed things and care only for the welfare
of the house. Inisso’s house in this case.”

“I’m
not sure I follow that. How did the vision of the goblins killing you help
anyone?”

“It
made me see that he was important, and help him when he was in Hub. The goblins
will have a king. Raven Totem is one of the most northerly lodges and Little
Chicken won’t attack Krasnegar, for my sake. He’ll direct the tribes southward.
Another king might not.”

“Oh!”
Inos said doubtfully.

“Magic
casements are evil!” Rap insisted. “It made me cheat Sagorn out of a word of
power, and it made Kalkor kill Gathmor. Rasha made a magic casement-not a very
good one, I admit-but it led her to you and that brought me, and then look what
happened! It put the welfare of Arakkaran ahead of hers. No gratitude at all.”